A TQM Model for Enabling Student Learning

SUMMARY There are many established applications of Total Quality Management (TQM) in manufacturing over the last two decades and, more recently, in services and the public sector. However, despite expectations that higher education institutions should lead the field, TQM has been insignificant in higher education until recently. The aim of this article is to determine the advantages of TQM and how TQM can be effectively and efficiently applied in higher education institutions. A higher education TQM excellence (HETQMEX) model is developed based on fundamental concepts of service quality: 5‐S, marketing and education quality control, quality control circles, ISO 9000 and total preventive maintenance. The article acknowledges the diversity of customers that TQM must satisfy and highlights some of the problems encountered in implementing the model, based on the research and experience of the authors at De Montfort University.